CHIEFS are averse to getting advice too willingly proffered by subordinates or peers, especially when these are neither solicited nor welcome. Routine pronouncements that the chief is always open to suggestions from the ranks, and that his door is always open for peasants to walk in unannounced are mere lip service to participative management. (Are you here to water the plants?)

SHOULDN’T we have space colonies and a universal cure for cancer by now?

eHealth is described as “an innovation process rather than just a structure or technology for the delivery of better healthcare” according to Beraterbide and Kelsey (2009). In the experience of many countries in the region, innovations in eHealth did not only require the adoption of new technologies but also the accompanying organizational change that takes into consideration social, political, and economic context. Innovations in eHealth must be “usable, sustainable, and scalable” and “address population-level needs and priorities. At the same time, they should serve a broader purpose, expanding to other population groups and contexts” (Shuvo, 2015). It then becomes not just a technology and innovation challenge but a governance challenge -- one that requires long-term commitment from stakeholders and a painstaking process of calibrating technology, the existing architecture for innovation, and the end-user: the regular citizen. These technologies are considered disruptive and as such come with deployment issues but at the same time huge pay offs for both the regulatory and implementing bodies as well as the clients. It is in the “systemically organized interactions between governments, knowledge based institutions and financial arbitrageurs” (Bartels, 2013) that these pay offs (not the least of which is better quality health care) materialize.

In her column last Wednesday, my friend Tess Abesamis attempts to understand why we seem to “elect so many undesirables.” She is no psychologist, having taken only the basic three units in college, according to her, but she came across Abraham Maslow’s paper on the Hierarchy of Needs. Tess finds in Maslow’s theory the explanation for the “atrocious kind of leaders we have today.”

There is more proof that Metro Manila traffic is among the worst in the world. Numbeo has quantified a “traffic index” for major cities around the world, shown in the table below. For brevity, I removed two columns -- Time expended index and CO2 emission index.

In planning to start a business, deciding between a corporation and a sole proprietorship is one of the first considerations. The differences used to be clear-cut -- corporations for large businesses, sole proprietorships for smaller ones. For the most part, that remains true.

President Rodrigo Duterte’s order to the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) to give the New People’s Army (NPA) tit for tat” is notable on several levels. It is perhaps the first time in the Philippines since American General Jacob Smith and Japanese Geneneral Masaharu Homma were here, that a commander-in-chief or a military commander has ordered “tit for tat,” “Do it to them also,” and “give them what they deserve” against the enemy. Whatever way this is interpreted and implemented by the military, and counter-attacked by the NPA, the result can only be an unfortunate further escalation of the armed conflict and (counter-)insurgency-related killings.

Manila Mayor Isko Moreno has been rightly hailed for reclaiming public space by removing illegal vendors plying their trade by occupying streets and sidewalks. However, some critics have pointed out that these vendors are merely trying to earn a living and would suffer tremendously if they were removed or relocated.

Last week, the Department of Tourism (DoT) announced that foreign arrivals breached the 4.1 million mark in the first semester of the year, an 11.43% increase from last year. It expressed confidence that it would meet its whole year target of 8.2 million visitors.

Last week Commissioner Ephyro Luis B. Amatong announced that the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is now looking at mandating a 20-25% Minimum Public Offering (MPO) range for listed companies, against the November 2017 order for these public companies to hit 15% MPO within three years, then another two years for the final 20% MPO.

Every tyranny has used fear and hate to take power and to keep it. Coercion and the use of force have never been enough. A gun can only kill, but fear can make entire nations tremble, and hate lead them into committing the worst of crimes.

Just guessing: there are probably between 16,000 to 20,000 students that annually want to enter law school. That’s before the PhilSat (Philippine Law School Admission Test). The PhilSat in 2018 cut that down to roughly 10,000 to 12,000.